Legal and illegal relationships, or how contemporary Polish authors write about love and sex Cover Image

Związki legalne i nielegalne, czyli jak współczesne polskie autorki piszą o miłości i seksie
Legal and illegal relationships, or how contemporary Polish authors write about love and sex

Author(s): Aleksandra Banot
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Comparative Linguistics, Polish Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: women’s writing after 1989; Inga Iwasiów; Anna Janko; Manuela Gretkowska; Grażyna Plebanek; Hanna Samson; romantic and sexual relationships; poeticization; brutalization

Summary/Abstract: The publication of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey in 2011, the film adaptation of the novel, and the continuation of the series, drew attention to literary texts written by women, not only popular, boldly addressing the issue of love-sexual relationships. In this article, I attempt to answer the following questions: how do renowned contemporary Polish female writers describe love stories, and above all, how do they deal with depicting sexual practices? Where do they seek inspiration? Can their language and style be considered specifically feminine? Initial analysis of selected novels allows for the identification of two primary aesthetic strategies: poeticization, for example in Pasja według św. Hanki (2012) by Anna Janko and W powietrzu (2014) by Inga Iwasiów, as well as brutalization – in the texts by Grażyna Plebanek (Nielegalne związki, 2010), Manuela Gretkowska (Trans, 2011), and in the two-volume series by Hanna Samson (Wojna żeńsko-męska i przeciwko światu, 2005; Pokój żeńsko-męski na chwałę patriarchatu, 2006).

  • Issue Year: 25/2025
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 31-45
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish
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